This invention relates to up-load technology for uploading station data in a telephone system, more particular a dealing telephone system, comprising a plurality of extension communication terminals each having station data, a data management equipment for managing the station data of the plurality of extension communication terminals, and a switching system which connects the plurality of extension communication terminals and data management equipment.
Telephone systems comprising private branch exchange (PBX) and a plurality of extension communication terminals which are accommodated in the PBX are widely used in a work place and the like. Particularly, in work places, such as banks or securities firms, where dealing work is performed, so called dealing telephone systems are widely used wherein the extension communication terminals themselves have station data that allow dealers to select and to speak in an instant to a desired customer from among many customers, and the system is configured to provide various services to the dealers being operators of the extension communication terminals based on the station data.
Up until now there have been such dealing telephone systems as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 4-61457 or Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 6-121035. In these dealing telephone systems, the station data of the plurality of extension communication terminals accommodated in the PBX were controlled as one batch, so a data management equipment is connected to the plurality of extension communication terminals via the PBX.
In the conventional dealing telephone system, if a operator changes seats (the extension communication terminal being used), in order to use the operating environment (extension number or station data) of the extension communication terminal before changing seats also at the extension communication terminal after changing seats, a seat-change process is performed for the extension communication terminal after changing seats in accordance to the following procedure.
(1) First, the PBX is notified of the change in extension number, to change the extension number of the extension communication terminal after changing seats to the extension number that was used by the extension communication terminal before changing seats.
(2) Next, the changed extension number is sent to the data management equipment, and station data for the extension communication terminal according to the changed extension number (the extension communication terminal that was used before changing seats) is downloaded from the data management equipment.
In the conventional dealing telephone system, if the station data of the extension communication terminal that was used before changing seats is changed, and that changed data is not reflected in the data management equipment, then the no-changed station data will be downloaded to the extension communication terminal after changing seats.
This problem can be dissolved if each time the station data of the extension communication terminal being used by the operator is changed, the operator uploads the changed station data to the data management equipment. However, due to carelessness, the operator may forget to upload the changed station data. If the seat is changed in this kind of situation, the operator faces a problem of having to reset the station data at the extension communication terminal after the seat change. In addition, the operator also faces a problem of having to upload the set station data to the data management equipment.
In consideration of the condition mentioned above, an object of the present invention is to provide a telephone system in which it is not necessary to reset the station data or to upload the station data after it has been reset when the operator changes seats, even though the station data is not uploaded to the data management equipment each time the station data for the extension communication terminal being used is changed.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, the present invention is a telephone system comprising a plurality of extension communication terminals each having station data; a data management equipment which manages the station data of the plurality of the extension communication terminals, and private branch exchange (PBX) which connects the plurality of extension communication terminals and data management equipment; wherein:
the extension communication terminals comprise:
instruction receiving means for receiving seat changing instructions;
judgment means for judging whether or not its own station data has been changed, in accordance with seat-change instructions by the instruction receiving means; and
upload means for uploading data to the data management equipment via the PBX if its own station data is judged by the judgment means to have been changed; and
the data management equipment comprises an update means for updating station data of the extension communication terminal which the data management equipment itself manages in accordance with the station data uploaded from the extension communication terminal.
With the present invention, when the extension communication terminal receives a seat-change instruction, the station data of its own is judged automatically whether it has been changed or not, and if it has been changed, that station data is uploaded to the data management equipment.
Accordingly, for example, in a case where two operators switch seats such that they also switch extension communication terminals with each other, if each operator entered a seat-change instruction at the extension communication terminal just using (before the seat change), when each operator changes the extension number at the extension communication terminal after the seat change to the extension number of the extension communication terminal that was being used before the seat change, and sends that extension number to the data management equipment, it is possible to download from the data management equipment the latest station data for the extension communication terminal that was being used before the seat change.
In other words, after changing seats, the operator does not need to reset the station data and upload that station data, even though station data is not uploaded to the data management equipment each time the station data of the extension communication terminal being used by the operator is changed.
In the present invention, it is also possible to further provide a control means for dividing the own station data into a plurality of blocks; and
to configure the judgment means to judge in block units, whether or not its own data has been changed on receiving seat-change instruction by the instruction receiving means, and to configure the upload means to upload to the data management equipment, only the data that corresponds to the block or blocks of its own station data that have been judged to be changed is uploaded, if its own data is judged by the judgment means to have been changed.
In this case, when data from the extension communication terminal is uploaded to the data management equipment, the data management equipment updates with the uploaded data, only data corresponding to the uploaded data of the station data of the extension communication terminal that the data management equipment itself manages.
In this way, since only the portion of station data of the extension communication terminal that are actually changed are uploaded, it is possible to reduce the time required for uploading, and to make uploading more efficient.